In recent years the growth of restaurants in Luanda has been impressive. In addition to quantity, the number ha been rising when it comes to the cuisine variety to choose from: Angolan, Italian, Portuguese, Cape Verdean, Japanese, Chinese, Ethiopian, Indian, etc.

We chose the Chinese cuisine this time – known all over the world for its almost universal menus, the generous amounts of each dose and the discipline, speed and consistency of their services.

We’ve all been through the experience of going to a Chinese restaurant with a large group of friends and not seeing the employee taking a single note from your order. And amazingly, your order arrives perfectly at your table. No mistakes, no forgetting.

NiHao has the advantage of being located in the city center and at one of the main roads to return home for those who live outside the capital. This might mean visibility and access, but it can also be the synonym of an half-an-hour traffic cue along Avenida Comandante Gika, near the Alvalade neighborhood and its imposing and famous hotel.

A point in favor of this restaurant is the provision of about three parking spaces reserved for its customers right across its entrance. At the door we see a warning: “ATM out of service”. We had to walk to the nearest ATM at the hotel across the street.

At the entrance we are greeted by a guard who smilingly opens the door for you. Once inside, you are guided to our table by also a smiling waitress.

The restaurant has about 7 different rooms that can be used for group dinners. Two of them are Japanese rooms in which, according to the manager, the client is able to assist to the food being prepared.

The NiHao, from outside, does not leave much to be desired. Although it has a nice metallic effect with the restaurant’s name at its main entrance, it also has a luminous title above the metallic one, which lacks refinement and gives it a cheap look overall.

From the inside, it has not, at all, the common decoration of other Chinese restaurants I have visited in the past – whether in Brazil or London. Here, the warm colors of dark wood and red tones are replaced by creams curtains and light walls.

The only Chinese details are pictures with Chinese writing characters hanging on the wall, the red and shy ceiling lamps and the (overly) golden decoration on the bases under the plates.

And even though the restaurant has dedicated time and energy in manufacturing beautiful custom plates with its initials, the decor does not work as a whole.

Once we sat, the employee asked if we wanted to order something to drink. I chose a natural lemon juice and my friend ordered a jasmine tea – moreover one of the most common teas in Chinese restaurants next to the green tea. At this point, the first problems with service started to arise. The waiter did not know what teas were available at all.

Returning after his teas research, the waiter returns with three glass jars. The same, he could not say what teas he was offering to us and even came to the confession that he’s been working there for a year and he did not know the name of a single tea.

The lemon juice was as basic as it can be. Sugar to the side and no ice. And the alternative to the tea was a Cuca (300 Kz).

Entries vary between 650 and 2200 Kz. We opted for the classic vegetable spring rolls and the fried wan-tan.

The wan-tan (650 Kz) had slightly more meat than the restaurants we know, but the flavor was good. The disappointment were the vegetables spring rolls (650 Kz). Vegetables? What vegetables? The crepes filling consisted of carrots and rice noodles. If I knew, I would not have ordered rice noodles as a main course and have a whole sense of déjà vu, or déjà mangé in this case.

Alongside these entries was a sauce described by the waiters as “sweet and sour sauce”, but it smelled, looked and tasted like ketchup.

I asked to know more about the ” Singapore Rice Noodles” (1650 Kz). Because I don’t eat meat, I asked the waiter what were the ingredients in the dish. The noodles had vegetables, shrimp and meat. When I asked the possibility to withdraw the meat, the waiter recommended a chao-min with seafood, arguing that it was an even thinner noodle than the rice noodle. Well, I’m no expert in Chinese cuisine, but it’s sad when we realized that we understand more about the food than the person who works in the referred restaurant. However, they easily accepted the possibility of removing the meat from the noodles.

The main courses arrived long before we finished the entries and were left to cool at the dinner table.

The rice noodles were “al dente” – which would be great for an Italian restaurant. It was hard, dry and sprinkled with a curry powder that only made it drier. The vegetables (peppers and carrots) were scarce and the prawns were parched and suffering from the well known symptoms of frozen seafood.

The crispy duck came sprinkled with almonds, giving it an extra crunchy flavor, but the skin itself was not as crispy as it should. It was accompanied by carrots and a single mayonnaise-covered lettuce leaf – presenting a typical snack bar appearance.

The chau-chau rice – even though it looked good – was undercooked, too soggy – similar to sushi rice – and tasted like smoke.

We ordered the apple fasi (fried apple wrapped in caramel, 1180 Kz)) and we could not help but try the fried ice cream (1350 Kz) – the ball that smokes hot on the outside but has cold ice cream on the inside.

The waiter prepares it in front of the client and the ice cream is fried in vertical flames.
After all this , the result is once again disappointing. The well-known and much appreciated crunchy crust that involves the ice cream – so consistent and invariable in almost all Chinese restaurants – is soft and withered here. Visually, the result was very unappealing.
In addition to this, my friend finished his dessert and the fried apple was nowhere to be seen. Perhaps the waiter forgot to complete the order or perhaps there was a delay in the kitchen. Nevertheless, we waited about 15 minutes for it.

Although there was no consistency in the service’s speed – some dishes arrived too early, others too late -it was worth the wait for the apple fasi. It had a very pleasant and appetizing appearance and the presentation was beautiful. The amount was generous and the leftovers deserved a takeaway.

Ironically, one of the best things about this restaurant is outside of it: the parking spots. Also, there is a clear effort in trying to please the customer: take-away and home delivery services, a satisfaction form to fill out at the end of the meal and the delivering of a Christmas gift on your way out. However, all this results fruitless if the essential basics are not there.

The quality of the food, the decor of the space, the service – employees misinformed about the menu, hesitant to every gesture and not offering solutions or alternatives to the customer – the unavailable ATM, the timing and pace of the service, and the whole inconsistency of it. At one point we had about 4 or 5 different employees serving our table.